Monday, December 24, 2012

My apologies for my laxness is posting for the last few days, between work, family and other writing commitments have kept me from my blog.

I have always liked the picture above. It represents the light that this time of year and the event it commemorates brings to the lives of ordinary folk like you and I. The adoration of the Magi, powerful men, leaders amongst their people, will come later. My King is no respecter of persons and those who came to him first were ordinary men, as practical as potatoes and as simple.

Say what you like about that Rembrandt fella, he knew how to paint light. Mrs Kinch and I saw this painting seven years ago, the day I asked her to marry me. It is as magical now as it was then.

Enjoy the feast and raise a glass for me. I hope to spend a quiet day in work tomorrow, so if you do raise a glass, don't get behind the wheel of a car, because that will definitely spoil my quiet day or the much hoped for quiet day of others.

Mrs Kinch and I, Cousin Basil, Sissi and Flashman would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Monday, December 17, 2012

The Mothers Union bake sale after the carol service - the ruck has died down somewhat,

the dead and those crushed in the scrum have been carted away

Yesterday was a wonderful day, in fact, I'm running out of superlatives. One of the best nights in work in months - robbers captured, damsels rescued, crises averted, conflicts soothed, wrongs righted and all back home in time for tea with no-one needing a trip to the hospital. One of those shifts that remind me why I joined. Just great.

Back home for some sleep and then up again to get to the 15.15 carol service at Saint Patrick's Cathedral. It was a great service with three differant choirs, wonderful reading and a wonderfully rumpty-pumpty-pump rendition of "God rest ye Merry Gentlemen." Mrs Kinch is quite right that I don't have two notes to rub together, but there's something about singing in church that lets me forget that I'm an awful singer and just wail away. The turnout was impressive, Cousin Basil who came along with me was quite surprised, though the unkind might attribute that to the fact that the Mothers Union bake sale in aid of the choir was afterwards. They are formidable women and not to be messed with. Cousin Basil and I repaired to a local hostelry laden with cakes, cookies, mini-puddings and all manner of good things. A quiet pint with Mrs Kinch after her work and then home again for a nap and back to work for me.

What lies within?

In wargaming news, my gift from the wargaming Secret Santa arrived a few days ago and is now ensconced under the tree. Mrs Kinch had been detailed to open the package and wrap the gift, but discovered that Secret Santa had already done the job.

I had been looking forward to this - but judicious shaking, poking and rattling leads me to believe that it is either a tennis racket or a banjolele.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

As I said previously, there's been precious little wargaming going on in the Kinch household of late. I'm still emptying the war room, though the wood is now ordered and will be delivered next week.

However, the Russians are coming and I've been doing my best to be prepared. I've been reading Digby Smiths' book on Borodino, which while well written makes for awful reading. Perhaps I've been reading too much about the Duke and he was not without his faults, but he was commendably abstemious with life when he could manage it. Borodino reminds one of a small boy crashing toy cars together for the fun of it.

With that in mind, allow me to present some gentlemen of the Russian foot artillery. These are Zvesda figures, painted by Krisztian Takacs of Budapest, and very beautiful they are too.

The Russian artillery was in poor shape at the beginning of the Napoleonic wars - but was reformed under the ultra-conservative General Arakeev. Arakeev was a martinet who frequently used his professional position to pursue personal vendettas, but he introduced standardised calibres and other reforms into the Russian artillery which made it very formidable indeed.

Once my MDF bases from Products for Wargamers arrive I'll get these chaps based up, but until then they'll have to carry on living in a box. These pictures were actually taken by Krisztian, who sent them on to me a few weeks ago. Stealing other men's glory, what!

The last thing many Frenchmen ever see.

I am blown away by how fine the detail on the Zvesda figures is and the fine job K did bringing it out. I think it's also rather fine how well the crew fit together, there is a definite sense of what is occurring here, rather than the old ESCI standing around with a bucket looking decorative situation.

In the Russian service, guns were served by a team of gunners split into two parts, the cannoneers (or gunners proper) and the "long arms", chaps who brought a strong back, but little else to the job.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

There's been quite a bit on the last few days. My latest X-Ray is clear which is very good news and I'm finally back at work which is a relief. Admittedly, the bit where I viewed the work that had piled up in my absence was less than pleasant, but it's good to be back.

Christmas has been in full swing in the Kinch household for the last few days. I tend to get my Christmas shopping done relatively early in the year (July I think this year), which was a hangover from my time in retail, which means that beyond a few bottles of wine, there isn't much for me to do. One of the most wonderful things about having your own home is bringing home the Christmas tree - it marked the beginning of the holiday season for us. The house is redolent with the smells of pine and baking.

Mrs Kinch is a woman who observes a strict division of labour with regard to Christmas. Baking, decorating and so forth are girl jobs. Getting and setting up the Christmas tree, unpacking and setting up the cribs and so forth are boy jobs. Which reminds me, I have to make a backdrop for our crib - a job for tomorrow I think. That rare moment where my modelling skills have a real world application.

There's been precious little going on on the wargaming front. I took delivery of some painted figures from Krisztian, pictures to follow soon.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

With much of my efforts revolving around Command & Colours Napoleonics, this is sort of a general project to improve the look and feel of the Grande Bataille version which I take to conventions. None of this is exactly critical, but I hope that it will make the game more of a spectacle and aid gameplay.

- Some diorama elements. One of things that really blow my socks off about the Wild Geese games are the little diorama elements that they add to their games. I have some bits and pieces, but I'm thinking of adding a few more. This has the added value of drawing people in to look at the pretty toys. Johnny keeps wittering on about more flags.

Ideas as present -

British soldier peeing against a tree.
Two French officers (with seconds) having a duel ideally looking a bit like David Carradine and Harvey Keitel.
A flogging.
A soldier fleeing the scene of the crime with chicken.
Cats asleep on roofs, ducks on the river, that sort of thing.

Finding the right figures for the flying cossacks is proving a bit of a poser

Command & Colours: Napoleonics - The Russians - MISSION COMMENCED

As regular readers will be aware - the Russian expansion is due in the first quarter of 2012. I'm not to flustered about this as there are a lot of Spanish games to be played before we can really get stuck into the Russians. That said, there is a lot ground is covered comparatively speaking, most of the figures have been got and the infantry will be heading out to Mark as soon as bases arrive. I have after long cutting my own front plasti-card become a convert to the MDF bases available from Products for Wargamers. Jim is a gentleman and I can't recommend him highly enough.

With at least another three or four months before we see the game, I'm happy that I'll be close to completion relatively soon after it arrives. That is probably terribly optimistic.

Things to do: Get the infantry to Mark.

The Tyrolean campaign appears to have been sadly neglected...

Command & Colours: Napoleonics - The Austrians - MISSION CONTEMPLATED

I have all my infantry bought and most of them based for this particular project. HAT do a very comprehensive range of Austrians and they've filled almost all the slots. Cavalry are the only arm I see presenting a problem, but to be honest - I'll have so much Napoleonic goodness to wade through before then it hardly matters. There are any amount of good hussars to be had and a unit or two of Austrian heavies in metal will hardly break the bank.

Unfortunately, my HAT chaps are all in those dull shakos, rather than the more elegant helmet.

As hard as Krupp steel!*

Command & Colours: Napoleonics - The Prussians - MISSION PIPEDREAM

We have been promised the Prussians before the end of 2013, but I think 2014 is more likely. The HAT infantry are excellent, though they belong very much to the latter period. The HAT chaps in bicornes are awful.

Our commitment to gritty realism here at Joy & Forgetfulness is second to none...

London Calling/The War that never was - MISSION COMMENCED

This is a bit of an odd project - and the only one on the list for which I'm doing all the painting, barring some work by Mr E on the figures that are just too good to be left to my panicked daubs. The idea behind it is to play some Cold War games with Force on Force. The other idea is to try
an England Invaded game set in the 1970s - a mixture of "Went the Day Well" and Invasion 1999 using Savage Worlds, though I think we've a while to go yet.

Things to do: Urban guerillas and some appropriate terrain.

In Sharpe Practice, careful use of one's assets is key

SHARPE PRACTICE - MISSION COMMENCED

Sharpe Practice has been an on and off idea for the last few years. The miniatures pose no problem, my existing Napoleonic collection is all single based. I have the rules and "The Complete Fondler" scenario collection. Looking through the scenarios listed there are some pretty big ones, doable but I think they will require a certain rethinking of how I use my terrain.

To be honest, beyond some paper work - this one is almost done,

Things to do: Prepare blinds and a card deck and play some games.

CONCLUSIONS

All of this is of course, predicated on my getting better and getting the war room floor fixed and getting that done before Christmas is looking increasingly unlikely.

Looking over at the list of projects - they can be broken into three main groups.

- German army (completed)
- Soviet army (complete barring guns)
- British army (lacking guns and tanks)
- American army (lacking everything)
- Memoir '36 (not that bothered)

Group Three: Everything else

- Sharpe Practice
- London Calling/Cold War

It's plenty of stuff to be getting on with, but I don't think it's likely to break the bank or leave me frustrated with lack of progress. I think the key here will be "little and often" and to play lots of games. It will be six months at least to play the Hundred Days and finish the pith of the Spanish scenarios. There are a lot of good things head.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Mrs Kinch: I'm terribly sorry darling, but if you were a horse Papa would have me shoot you. Cousin Basil (adjusting his moustache): Come along old girl, it doesn't do to watch 'em linger.

Feeling a bit more uppish today and went looking through old blog posts trying to find the post I wrote when I had swine flu, which I caught under similar circumstances two years ago. While I was at it, I came across an interesting post where I did one of those ill fated "Five Year Plan" efforts. I thought it was interesting to look back at it and as I won't be doing anything blog worthy for a while, it gives me something to write about without being too demanding.

On the subject of Five Year Plans, I've always rather liked this song, much as I disagree with his politics, the man himself seems both decent and genuine.

Looking over the plans that were mooted, it's interesting to see what has succeeded and what hasn't

This can only be described as a roaring success. I've played this game solidly for two years and it is still offering me new things to do and be interested in. When I wrote my original post, I was waiting for the box to arrive. Since then I have completed British and French armies for all the scenarios in the basic box. We've played every scenario in the box (barring Waterloo and Quatre Bras which are being saved for a special occasion) and several more besides.

Gentlemen, I present my Battle Reports page as evidence. I defy anyone to say that this particular project was not a roaring success.

Things left to do: Play Quatre Bras and Waterloo with General Creanor while drinking bottle of 1984 Port.

A few months ago I would probably said that this project was a qualified success - but I'm upgrading this to full aircraft carrier and "Mission Accomplished" banner status.

I've raised forces to cover all the scenarios and we've given several of them a whirl. There are still things to be done with this project (mainly due to jaw dropping generosity of a friend of mine who sent me a ton of figures), but the brute work is done and all that remains is to play the games and enjoy oneself.

Things to do: Nothing really, three units of Swiss infantry in Spanish service, who are already with Krisztian. Play more games.

This was a nice idea, to set up a wargaming imagi-nation that I would use to play Charles Grant scenarios in. I bought figures for it and that's pretty much where it ended. Those figures have either been sold, given away or inducted into other forces.

To be honest, I think the main reason this project floundered was that I was having too much fun playing historical games with historical forces. I've also noticed that the really dedicated Imagination fellas tend not to play that many games and spend most of their time painting.

That said, I have had considerable success* with a series of LARPs set in the Grand Duchy of Little Siskington and the Bishopric of Gormanstein over the last few years, so this is obviously the outlet for my Imagi-nation needs.

Typical Canadian at play (in native costume)

For Honour & Glory - The War of 1812 - MISSION DISCRETIONARY

I quite liked this game when I first got my hands on it. However, the War of 1812 has never been a big period of mine, mainly I suspect because I get confused when I see Americans fighting the British. Also invading Canada also strikes me as the act of a cad - I've never been there, but the people are wonderful, just so incredibly lovely. How could you?

I think this project was on the list because at the time of writing the game was actually available and I already had all the British troops I would have ever needed. I still have a horde of unpainted British troops ready to be transferred to Cousin Jonathan's service, there just seem to be other projects that keep crowding ahead of them.

Curiously enough, this project despite being no-where near where I want it to be has actually made considerable progress.

I have sufficient British troops and sepoys for my immediate needs, though sepoy cavalry is a little thin on the ground, though I hope that the estimable Uwe will soon put that to right.

The forces of Kaala-Akaata are formidable. They will probably require some more peon infantry, but for the most part things are taking shape.

The rules have been play tested by General Du Gourmand and I and they seem to be sturdy enough. The forces of the Rajah play sufficiently differently to the forces of the company for it to be interesting.

The terrain is done as I have a nice collection of Indian building, including a mosque, though I should presumably invest in a village well and some 'eathen idols. Funnily enough, I was having a look at the vegetation in the Carnatic and it's very European to my eyes. Given that Kala-Akaata owes rather more to my childhood reading of The Jungle Book than my adult reading of Jac Weller, the vegetation will be more jungly then strictly necessary.

What I actually want to do is to run this game as a "group solo" effort in the style of Howard Whitehouses "Too Much for the Mahdi" - but with Command & Colours for the battles. I've had difficulty coming up with a logistics game that I'm really happy with though. There are other projects occupying my time at present, but this is something I will definitely come back to.

Things to do: Add a few troops here and there, write some proper rules for logistics.

Less haste, more speed

Memoir '44 in 1/72 - MISSION COMMENCED

I only really started into this project a few months ago, but we've made considerable inroads into it already. We've played about half a dozen games as well as one very odd solo effort. The main difficulty has been fielding a suitable force against the Germans as I have rather a lot of them, more than I have of anyone else. Once I'm finished my Russian guns, the Russians will have tanks, infantry and artillery enough for several games. The US and the British will not be far behind, but I intend to take this one at a fairly sedate pace as there are hundreds of Memoir '44 scenarios out there, most of which can be played with twelve units of infantry, six units of tanks and three units of artillery. I think what I'll probably do is pick one of the two player campaigns from Campaign Books 1 & 2 and pick my forces accordingly.

Things to do: Simply hundreds, but I'll take them as and when I like.

Mr. Thomas is not happy with my progress

Memoir '36 - MISSION DISCRETIONARY
This was to be my effort at a Very British Civil War game. I actually did a bit of work on this and then forgot about it. I was mainly an excuse to play some "What if" Memoir '44 games without having to think to hard about actual practice during the Second World War. I have a few of the Solway Arts pamphlets and they didn't impress, which killed my enthusiasm for the project rather.

That said, I wouldn't have to add much to my arsenal to play some games and the "What if" element remains. Though I should clarify what I mean by "What if", I'm not particularly interested in the exploits of the Borsetshire Workers Flying Column or the Ambridge Black Shirts, but I am interested in is "How would I go about taking a fortified town with a mixture of horsed cavalry and tanks." VBCW offers the chance to do that without getting yelled at. Don't ask me why I don't play the Spanish Civil War, the God awful slaughter depresses me deeply, and I can't give you a good reason why the Eastern Front doesn't have the same effect.

Things to do: Not much really. I have the majority of the figures I'll need. This is a - wouldn't it be nice to try - sort of effort. I might push on with it a little, but it will only be if other projects aren't engaging my interest.

Needless to say, my games of 40K were not going according to plan

Giant Space Crusade - MISSION ABORTED
This was a game that Capability Savage and I ran nearly ten years ago. Two years ago, we were rather tired and emotional and got to talking over old times and setting the world to rights. We were unfortunately in the company of that unscrupulous bounder Donogh McCarthy, who challenged us to do a second and improved version of the game.

It was a nice idea and we were initially enthusiastic. but in the end we weren't sure that the effort required would be worth the payoff. Though of late, I've had fond memories of game of Rogue Trader - I don't think I'll be returning to the 41st millenium any time soon.

In conclusion, I think I've acquitted myself reasonably well. The aborted missions are no tragedy and I didn't put much time or effort into them. What money I put into the Ruritania project, I've made back by trading or swopping the figures and the material I wrote for it was folded into the Little Siskington LARPs without any trouble.

The discretionary missions are nice ideas and I may do some work on them, if the mood takes me. But unless something comes along to give me a kick in the backside, I'm unlikely to finish them - not when there are exciting new Napoleonics to be had and other projects that have come up since then (a subject for a second blog entry I think ).

The missions commenced are a mixed bag - I'm coming very near the end of the time when I'll be buying new stuff for India, bar a war elephant or two. I want a suitably dusty hex matt, though I am led to believe that Mrs Kinch took my relatively unsubtle hint**, and that this may be appearing in the near future. Unfortunately for India, the game I want to play there strikes me as one that requires a lot of time and a solid logistics game and I'm not sure I'll have to time to arrange that for a while. As for Memoir '44, I could spend the next five years trying to build collections to play it and still not be finished. But I can, if I (quite literally) choose my battles carefully, add a few pieces to my collection and get plenty of games out of them. I'm in no rush.

Missions accomplished - there's not a lot to say about them other then the fact that I'm tremendously happy with C&C Napoleonics as my game of choice at present. When I think about the sheer number of games I've managed to play in the last two years, I consider myself very lucky. Our two Grande Bataille outings have been very successful, though I look forward to Richard Borg's final word on the matter. There is also the happy prospect of getting stuck into Waterloo and the Spanish. I think I may have to begin a new battle reports page.

*Where success is defined as having fifteen or twenty people turn up play the game and wish to repeat the experience afterwards.

**"Darling, I want this for Christmas. This is the link you need to click on and this is the thing you are to order, exactly this thing, accept nothing else." Women are such subtle creatures and often pick up tiny and often quite unconscious clues.

One of the best things about my profession is the people that you meet. Sadly, it is also one of the worst things about my profession. I picked up a cough from a chap I met in a professional capacity last week and in my attempts to soldier through it, I have apparently given myself pneumonia. This has laid me low the last few days so my apologies if my correspondence has not been as snappy as usual.

I had hoped that at least this enforced bed rest would allow me to get some scribbling done, but I seem to have precious little energy.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

The lack of a War Room is really beginning to bite at this stage - I haven't had a decent game in nearly a month. That should however, be ending fairly soon and I'm very glad too. With that in mind I've been thinking about what sort of games I should play next. I've had a hankering for an old fashioned figure removal sort of game for a while. I was considering the Legends of the Old West Alamo game, as I'd rather like to do a siege - but then I thought I might give Sharpe Practice a try. I bought it a couple of years ago, but never actually tried it out.

Unfortunately, when I went looking for my copy I discovered that all my Two Fat Lardies PDFs had gone in a hard drive crash last year.

One swift email to Richard at Two Fat Lardies later - he did a check on my account and sent me copies of everything that I was missing. Strictly speaking he didn't have to - but it did so anyway. So hopefully, once the interminable floor project is done, you'll be seeing some Sharpe Practice in the weeks to come.

*Photograph may not actually be Richard Clarke. This guarantee is not a guarantee.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

There's been precious little gaming going on in the Kinch household at present as the War Room is in "a terrible state o' chassis" and I've been working all the hours God sends. However, there is always time for toy soldiers and when I noticed that Simon over at Painted Napoleonic Armies had some Russian militia for sale, I decided to strike while the iron was hot.

I had intended to buy the HAT Russian Militia set myself, but I would have needed two boxes to get the number of pikemen that I wanted and I wouldn't have had much use for the rest of the box. Simon may be a little more expensive, but I got exactly what I wanted with no fuss and all I have to do is base them. Simon not only had the right figures in stock, but painted extra so that I could have the unit numbers that I wanted. Well done Simon.

I don't actually know that much about the Russian army of the Napoleonic wars, beyond a bit of Tolstoy and a few snippets of Chandler, and I've been debating picking up the two Osprey volumes. I'm sure there are more knowledgeable chaps out there - what would you fellas recommend?

The HAT set offers a wide variety of figures for the smorgasborg of Russian militia units that existed, but I try to make sure the differant unit types are as clearly distinguishable as possible. And so far as the Napoleonic wars are concerned, nothing says that you are enjoying cocktail hour at the Last Chance Saloon quite like going into battle with a pike. If you click the picture and enlarge, you will notice that these boys have hatchets tucked into their belts.

They are so far as I can tell Moscow Opelchenie, militia raised from the townsfolk of Moscow to see off the dastardly Frenchies. I know that there is some significance to the dark green frock coats worn by one unit, but I haven't been able to confirm what it is.

Opelchenie were raised in cohorts, a brigade type formation made up of two battalions of pikemen supplemented by a battalion of jaegers. Actually, militia jaegers might be a nice addition as Russian light infantry (much like the British) look very like the line infantry.

Their uniforms were rough and ready and they were led by whatever officers could be spared. I particularly like this officer figure, I could certainly see myself putting him in other units. I like the pose, he looks like a professional, probably old for his rank, brought out of retirement for one last battle.

Du Gourmand took the news rather hard

In other news, Command & Colours: Napoleonics - The Russian Army has been moved from a January release date to a first quarter of January release date. This blow is softened somewhat by the news that two additional scenarios have been added along with something called the "Pre-Battle Mother Russia Roll". I would suspect this might be something along the lines of the campaign rolls from the Memoir '44 campaign books, but I could be wrong.

I've always had a soft spot for Craonne as it was included in Paddy Griffith's Sandhurst Book of Wargames. I never played it as it was a bit complicated for me, I generally stuck to the Chevaucee game.

A happy Austrian*

(not as previously suggested General Du Gourmand)

However, on the plus side the Austrian expansion is now slated for the second quarter of 2013, so our cup runs over. I better start building some Austrian forces then...

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Gentlemen, The Liebster Awards are doing the rounds at present - I was nominated some days ago and have rather churlishly failed to respond until now. All I can plead is the exigencies of the service, which have kept me away from hearth, home and laptop, for the last few days. My phone certainly serves as a blog reader, but it is a poor means of actually writing an entry. Pardon gentles all - to be honest, I was just numb with cold and tiredness when I got home and did little more than eat and let Mrs Kinch pour me into bed. Firstly, I am reliably informed that Liebster Awards means "favourite blog". I don't speak hun, so I shall have to rely to PanzerGruppenBossen Tim "Siegfried" Gow's translation as he apparently does. This, I think we can all agree, only makes him more deeply suspect. But firstly the critics said,

FireyMonkeyBoy showing his years, Stokes's hairline is fighting a valiant rearguard action.

(Tim Gow was unavailable at the time this photograph was taken - or may be disguised as a stick)

The critics said,"Mostly focused on 1/72 napoleonics, Kinch's graceful writing expresses the best of old school gaming. Pipe in hand, he sets out to give the French a good kicking, and if a glass of port or three are ingested along the way, all the better." - FireyMonkeyBoyWargaming, alcoholism and xenophobia - MonkeyBoy cuts to the very heart of this endeavour. "Conrad Kinch's excellent blog provides a safe haven from reality. Game reports and figure painting posts are interspersed with travelogue and silliness." - Tim GowSniff - I feel one of Joy & Forgetfulness's strengths is a commitment to gritty realism. I see myself as the Brecht of the wargaming world. A well-written, entertaining, and sometimes hilariously funny wargaming blog written by one Conrad Kinch, noted wargamer, pipe-smoker, author, and legal scholar. His wargaming-related scribblings have appeared, among other places, in Battlegames and the sadly defunct Classic Wargamer's Journal.Sadly defunct indeed. It was a great magazine - I always enjoyed it. Legal scholar? Forsooth!My thanks to the critics. The rules are as follows, "Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it to you.

Pass the award to your top 5 favourite blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your own blog.

Sit back and bask in that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing that you have just made someone's day!"

Now as it happens, there are quite a few Leibsters going around and I did actually sketch out a short list while I was incommunicado, so what I've done is pick five (which wasn't easy) and added honourable mentions for the chaps I would have picked, had they not gotten one already.

Honourable Mentions.

Firstly, Lee at NapoleonicTherapy. Lee is a gifted painter and a man who knows what he wants. But unlike some other gifted painters, he plays game (lots of games!) and that is the crux of the matter so far as I'm concerned. A cracking blog - heartily recommended.

The Mad Padre needs no introduction. Less "Jam & Jerusalem" and more "Skirmish Wargaming & Salvation".

Ross McFarlane - quite simply the man is an inspiration. There are days I just want to strand him in a scrap metal yard. I guarantee within two weeks, he'll be playing the War of 1812 using homemade Britains knockoffs cast from moulds made of out of old sparkplugs and prayer. A chap of infinite invention.

Donogh McCarthy more than anybody keeps me honest. He restrains my crazier impulses ("We need to build a four storey twelve foot long space hulk") and supports my slight less cracked ideas ("We can do Gettysburg in a day right?"). Mrs Kinch refers to him as my "Wargaming Wife."

Alfront or Dr Stephen Cullen if you want to use his stage name writes, "War Diaries of a Little Englander." This is a blog of shreds and patches, gardening, wargaming, modelling and politics mixed with humour. I've no idea what Alfronts actual views are, I'm beginning to think he may be some manner of anarchist, but either way it's an interesting read.

Nominations
This is a collaborative blog and to be honest, I view that sort of thing as being very similar to interpretive dance or sociology, that is some sort of bizarre confidence trick that is aimed at avoiding real work. What you actually get is a blog that chronicles the modelling and gaming of a British Civil War in 1979. Written with a light touch and tremendously evocative of time and place, Winter of '79 is a class act.Ben's ancestors were transported to the Antipodes for stealing a pig and yet, despite dodging venomous beasts and the daily trips to something known as "The Thunderdome" (which I believe is a chain of local supermarkets) he manages to write a wonderful blog devoted to Napoleonic wargaming and painting. One wonders where he finds the time. Deep in my curmudgeonly soul, I have a very soft spot for Warhammer 40,000, specifically Rogue Trader. I had an Imperial Guard army in the dim and distant past and we got eaten by Genestealers with monotonous regularity. It's probably one of the few science fiction games I'd still play given the chance. Tales from the Maelstrom is a collaborative blog by some fellas who enjoy the semi-roleplaying anarchy of Rogue Trader and seek to recapture that particular genie. And snooks to anyone who says it isn't "official!" I haven't played Dungeons & Dragons in nearly twenty years and I still find FrDave's project fascinating. He is an Orthodox cleric apparently (damned if I know what flavour, Russian, Greek or Romanian) who loves Dungeons & Dragons and has been exploring his faith through the medium of roleplaying games. I always find his posts of the lives of saints interesting.
Harry Pearson is the author of Achtung Schweinhundt, a book that I really enjoyed. If you don't have it, buy it or get a loved one to do so, Christmas is coming up after all. I got four copies from family and friends the year it came out. His blog over at Parum Pugna is concerned with Ancients specifically ancient Ancients, Hinton Hunts, Rose, Garrison, etc. The battle reports are always a highlight for me. He may write the Guardian, but overall he's a good egg.

Three Blogs that I wish were updated more often, so I just went ahead and nominated them anyway - it might poke them into posting. John Curry is one of the unsung heroes of our hobby. Editor, Maid, Chief Bottle Washer and Chief Petty Officer of the History of Wargaming Project, John spends his time collecting and republishing old sets of wargaming rules, books about the hobby and generally squirreling out information of interest. I have never regretted buying one of his books. Old John is a friend who I met through the Old School Wargaming list and is now a regular face at the larger Irish conventions. He combines wargaming with being a spiv and would probably give Harry Lime a run for his money, should the old boy take a break from flogging penicillin and decided to move some Hinton Hunts "Only one previous owner boss and he always rolled sixes." Old John has a sideline in 20mm metal figures, most of which you can see on his blog. Arquinsel's Project Arnhem blog has been sadly quiet for several months, he does however manage to write about putting kits together in a manner that doesn't make me despair, which is an achievement enough. His wardrobe leaves something to be desired though. There's a lack of tweed and corduroy that gives one pause.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

These arrived the other day, but I've been too busy to really do anything with them. These were sculpted by Matt over at Elheim miniatures as part of his commission a range programme. The thinking behind it is that Matt is willing to sculpt and put into production a single 20mm figure for £20. Your twenty guineas (less one pound new money) gets you two copies of a bespoke sculpt and the satisfaction of having a unique and otherwise unobtainable figure.

Now see if you can identity (from my admittedly ham fisted camera phone effort) these three thief takers.

...and the New Firm

A bright shiny sixpence to the smart lad who can identify these four menaces to society.

Of course, the best way to go about it is to put together a consortium, as we did on the Guild and get a number of people to chip in. We managed to do that and assemble a seven figure set without anybody breaking the bank. I think the quality of Matt's work is inarguable. My mother in law was able to identify six out of seven figures without any difficulty.

But if you want to get some figures made, you could do a lot worse than get in touch with Mat.

Friday, November 23, 2012

One of the advantages of slowly unpacking my old boxes is the harvest of completed and almost completed stuff that emerges. I have more Germans than I know what to do with and a goodly crop of Russians. My Americans and British seem to have dissappeared, but there are two nearly complete Second World War armies in there.

The Soviets had plenty of tanks and infantry to be going along with, but lacked artillery. I picked up a single box of Plastic Soldier Company 76mm guns. These a very neat little models, four guns and crew at a very reasonable price.

The last few days have been fraught, but I found the time to paint up the fellows above. They are very clean, crisp models with good detail and take paint well.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

As a result of the last battle, the German player recieved additional reinforcements, in the shape of a tank unit. In Memoir '44, a tank unit has three models (i.e. it can take three hits before it is removed from play) As we play more games of Memoir '44 to 1/.72 scale figures, I anticipate using single tanks either with shell bursts or tank rider to track casualties, but for this game I went ahead and put three pieces down. The Panzer I is from Matchbox, painted about a lifetime ago, the staff car is resin (possibly from Frontline) and the crewman checking his watch is from SHQ or possibly Battlefield.

This was the second scenario in the campaign and the briefing was as follows:

"With its cliffs, steep slopes and limited access points, the Vercors plateau is a natural and easily defended fortress. Familiar with the terrain, the heads of the French Resistance immediately saw its value as a defensive bastion deep within occupied France. Soon enough, word spread and a few thousand
young French men and women began to arrive - all eager to take arms against the occupier. Unfortunately, the Germans had also gotten wind of the growing resistance there. On June 13, 1944, a German battalion moved into the gap near Saint-Nizier, before running into stiff resistance from the maquis outposts
and withdrawing with heavy losses. Determined to flush the place out, the Germans were back in force two days later however. This time, they broke through, forcing the maquisards to withdraw. The road to Saint-Nizier was now open; soon the Germans seized it, burning the village to the ground in retaliation for
their losses."

Because of the way the rules work, large ridges and hills only have their edges marked in Memoir '44 scenarios, but I got the bit between my teeth when we were putting this one together. I pulled out every hill that I had and put them all together, they were almost enough to fill up the whole plateau. From a rules point of view it didn't make a lot of differance and I suppose I could have just put books under the cloth. Still I think my set up looks rather well.

The German troops start mortaring the Resistants at the road block, note the dust cloud raised by the falling mortar shell

As you can tell this setup was a bit of ramshackle sort of effort. I used some pieces of black cloth as roads, I also experimented with using cat litter as a road, that was actually quite successful - I don't think I'll be using the fabric again.

German troops begin by moving up on the French left. Donogh and I had decided that we were going to try to contest the edge of the plateau, then fall back in attempt to string out the advancing Krauts and then counter attack the isolated ones.

Our counter attack didn't really work as we completely failed to even slow the lockstep advance of Mr E & General Creanor's grey legions.

True to form we skedaddle in the hope that we can cause the Germans to get strung out a little. As you can see the German infantry on the left have taken some casualties.

But they wipe out our left most partisan group in retaliation. Things are looking very grim.

The survivors scurry for the safety of the buildings, pursued by German infantry.

The German infantry have outflanked the partisan roadblock and the Panzer I starts to roll down the road. A joke anywhere else in 1944, the "leetle tank" is a major problem for the French.

Long range fire manages to shake the crew of the Panzer and thin out the advancing tide of grey, but it may be too little too late.

The Panzer moves swiftly past the French defences, turning to attack them in the rear.

Wiping out one group of partisans, the Panzer preparing to riddle the remaining defenders, while the infantry move forward.

A lone Masquisard with a .45 faces the steel beast. If the last reel of "Saving Private Ryan" is to be believed, this might actually work...

Spurred on by their comrades heroism, the Masquisards break cover and surround the German vanguard.

They open up with everything they have, but one Landser manages to hang on.

However, the tank crew have decided that discretion is the better part of valour...

Mr E and General Creanor discuss what they will do. Donogh & I were feeling somewhat miffed about the tank having escaped.

However pride comes before a fall and the panzer rolled up onto the hill only to be greeted by a hail of petrol bombs.

The demise of the German panzer gave the Resistance fighters new hope. Their commandant rallies the troops...

...but over on the French left, things are still bleak as two weakened German units corner the shell shocked Maquis.

Sadly high spirits and gallic pride don't seem to be cutting the mustard today. The German infantry move forward, not confidently, the Frenchmen have taken a harvest of them certainly, but with purpose.

One of the unusual things about this scenario is that the French must lose almost all of their units before losing. I think this represents the sheer desperation of their situation. With only three units left on the board, it would take a miracle for Donogh and I to pull this out of the bag, even having left the German unit on the left teetering on one base.

But before miracles have time to manifest themselves, the Landser on the left close in and destroy the remaining Masquisards. The survivors on the right pack up and slink into the night. Another defeat (5-1, if memory serves) for the Resistance, which is a pity as it was a closer game than that would make it appear. Some dismal dice rolling early on did serious damage to our chances of success and the extra German tank unit did considerable execution. I'm sure Donogh, Mr E and General Creanor will add their own observations.